Science & Tech Quote by Judith Martin

Progress doesn’t erase; it piles up. Judith Martin, better known as “Miss Manners,” has always been interested in the delusions we use to excuse our behavior, and this line has that same dry corrective snap. On the surface, it’s a simple warning against technological determinism: the idea that the new automatically makes the old obsolete. The deeper target is the laziness that comes with that belief, the way we treat innovation as a moral permission slip.

In Martin’s etiquette-inflected worldview, technologies don’t just add capabilities; they add opportunities to dodge responsibility. Email didn’t “replace” letters so much as it lowered the cost of writing while also lowering the felt obligation to be thoughtful. Texting didn’t cancel phone calls; it made ignoring someone look efficient. Social media didn’t abolish reputation; it made reputation a perpetual performance with receipts. The old forms remain, but they get reclassified: from default to “extra,” from expectation to “charming,” from duty to optional. That’s where the quote quietly bites.

The context is a culture that narrates every gadget as a clean break: the paperless office, the death of the book, the end of conversation, the cancellation of privacy. Martin’s intent is to puncture that myth. New tools don’t wipe the slate; they widen the menu of choices, which means the social and ethical questions multiply. If anything, the old standards become more important, because the easiest move in the new regime is to pretend the old rules no longer apply.